A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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The Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale as covered by Damon, Naomi, and Dean
A pretty short, and under-researched, post this week since last week I was on a trip to Broughty Ferry (near Dundee) so haven’t had much time at my computer. This week I’m spending a lot of time ferrying my mother-in-law around… so there’s a good chance next week’s post will be a short, under-researched one too!
The Velvet Underground’s Femme Fatale is one of the only non-Galaxie 500 songs to have been covered by all ex-members of Galaxie 500.
Femme Fatale was written by Lou Reed when Andy Warhol asked him to write a song about Edie Sedgwick. The song was sung by Nico and was on their 1967 LP The Velvet Underground & Nico LP (and on the b-side of a Sunday Morning 7”).
Since, you all know the VU’s version, I thought I’d share this astounding performance of the song by Nico in the UK in 1982 backed by The Blue Orchids. It looks a bit ropey, but the performance is utterly entrancing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgbxLxrr9jI
Damon & Naomi recorded the track with Ghost (at Ghost’s suggestion) in the sessions for their album Damon & Naomi with Ghost however the track never got released until the 2012 reissue of the album when it appeared on a bonus 7” single with some copies, it later got released on their digital only Spirit of Love b-sides, bonuses, and soundtracks album in 2016.
https://damonandnaomi.bandcamp.com/track/femme-fatale
Dean covered the song with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles at a Big Star tribute in 2014, there was a video on YouTube but sadly it’s gone AWOL so you’ll just have to believe me that it happened. I must admit that I was slightly sad that Dean was at a Big Star tribute and covered a Velvet Underground song rather than a Big Star one!
Fortunately more recently Luna have been covering the song, with Britta doing the vocal - here they are playing it in Los Angeles in December 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjKVurXDRNo
Dean and Britta (and Sonic Boom) also appeared on the cover of Femme Fatale that Angel Corpus Christi released on her Louie Louie CD back in 2003:
https://angelcorpuschristi.bandcamp.com/track/femme-fatale
… and now, drifting a bit off-topic…
Angel also recorded the song, with vocals, on her I♡NY album…
https://angelcorpuschristi.bandcamp.com/track/femme-fatale-2
… and since Dean didn’t cover a Big Star track here are Damon & Naomi who did… with Ghost on the album with Ghost…
https://damonandnaomi.bandcamp.com/track/blue-moon